Google's Competitor For Facebook Isn't Plus. It's Project Glass.

If Google Plus were Google’s sole attempt to compete with Facebook in the realm of social, then Google would be screwed. Google+ does everything that Facebook does – with some features that are even better than Facebook's – but it hasn’t been able to get much traction as a social network. It’s like a really great night spot in a part of town that no one goes to; the bar is well-stocked, the seats are comfy, and the interior decoration is superb, but the place is sparsely populated. With both bars and social networks, we want a bit of a crowd.

The real challenge Google has for Facebook is the secretive Google X lab’s creation, “Project Glass,” which New York Times refers to as “Terminator Style Glasses” (check the url) and what the rest of us fondly call “Google Glasses.” The augmented reality glasses would bring smartphone computing straight to your eyeballs, and allow wearers to capture photos and videos of the world as they see it. In the first Project Glass video released, a Googler tramps it up:

Googler Sebastian Thrun, playing with his son, Jasper, while wearing Google Glasses

Creating video and images like these is a visual social experience. In fact, sharing the world as you see it with someone else may be the ultimate social experience. The Project Glass output has the same allure as Instagram -- capturing where someone is at a given moment, and what they're doing -- but has an enhanced intimacy from seeing the world as that person sees it, rather than as they see it through their phone. I'm calling it now: Google Glass stalking is going to be way more fun than Facebook stalking.

Facebook bought Instagram and created a Facebook Camera because photos -- and specifically photos of people -- are at the heart of Facebook and the social experience. With Google Glasses -- which Sergey Brin says may be available commercially as early as 2013 and which NYT has said will cost between $250 and $600 -- Google is muscling its way into the social photo space in a big way.

When you think Facebook, think: photos. And don’t be surprised if you see Facebook do even more to cement this incredible position....

Speaking of, Facebook is rumored to be acquiring Face.com, an Israeli start-up that uses facial recognition to tag people in photos and even allows them to 'check in' at events via a facial scan.

And when you think Google, think… well, think long-term. I feel like Facebook is probably an easier place to work than Google these days. Facebook is all huge numbers going up, up, up everyday—everything except the share price, but that will come in time. Google, on the other hand, is Google+ and its undead shambling… but damn, it’s also Project Glass, and those cars that can drive themselves! Google is getting good, really good, at building things that see the world around them and actually understand what they’re seeing.

In this context, Google+ is not the company’s most strategic project. That distinction goes to Glass, to the self-driving cars, and to Google Maps, Street View, and Earth: Google’s detailed model of the real, physical world.

And because Google Glasses will have the ability to send text messages, take phone calls, and give directions, Apple's iPhone will also be in the boxing ring here.

Another advantage Google Glasses may have: taking us out of a world of screens and little boxes, and into a world where the technology around us is near invisible (beyond the geek-hipster frames sitting on your face). At the very least, it's hand-less. Apple made a similar move in this direction with Siri, allowing people to gradually phase keyboards out of their computing.

Google CEO Larry Page in Google Glasses

We're constantly being told these days that sitting is killing us, and that the amount of time we spend planted in a chair, glued to computers and tablets, is dangerously unhealthy. Technologies that allow us to be mobile and engaged with the world, while still connected to the Internet, are going to continue to be attractive, even if we don't look our most attractive while wearing them.